After the chaos of the Divisional Round only four teams remain. The Cincinnati Bengals will head to Kansas City to face the Chiefs who are coming off that insane finish Sunday night. The late game features the 49ers heading to Los Angeles to face the Rams. The winner of that game will have two consecutive games in SoFi Stadium.
Since there are only two games on the slate I’ll break each one down individually rather than by position. At this point of the season we know who everyone is and what their roles are. So rather than go over specific players we’ll dig more into strategies and lineup construction.
On smaller slates its a bit harder to differentiate your lineups with a limited player pool. Don’t be afraid of going heavier on one game over the other. Or heavy on one team in general. Also leaving salary on the table is another way to get different.
CIN Bengals @ KC Chiefs
Spread: -7
Over/Under: 54.5
Team Totals: CIN 23.75 KC 30.75
Breakdown
It’s worth wondering if the Chiefs have any hangover from an emotional overtime win late Sunday night. Or if an extra days rest will give the Bengals any advantage. Regardless this should be a high scoring game. The Chiefs have allowed an average of 28.75 points over their last four games. While the Bengals offense has averaged 30 points over their last four games. We know what the Chiefs offense is capable of.
I could see the Chiefs coming out flat like they’ve done in the past and Cincinnati grabbing an early lead with KC storming back in the 2nd half in typical Chiefs fashion.
If you’re stacking the KC side Mahomes, Hill, Kelce are the obvious choices. You can start there and try to be different elsewhere but I’ll likely have Mahomes and one of them with Pringle and or Robinson. McKinnon could also be a way to get different and paired with Mahomes.
Any Burrow stacks will likely include Chase. I’ll have at least two pass catchers paired with him. Burrow with Higgins and Boyd can help you be a little different than most Chase lineups. Uzomah with two WRs likely lowers total ownership even more. Burrow with Mixon makes sense with Mixon’s pass catching ability.
If you want to fade the QBs but still get access to this game you could just play the RBs and hope they do most of the scoring. Edwards Helaire provides salary savings with possible TD upside and could be a good bring back in Burrow stacks.
My favorite stacks are
Mahomes, Kelce and Pringle with Mixon and Chase as a bring back.
In larger field
Burrow, Chase, Higgins and Uzomah with Pringle and Kelce as a bring back
QB
Patrick Mahomes $7,400
Joe Burrow $6,600
RB
Joe Mixon $6,800
Clyde Edwards Helaire $5,300
Jerick McKinnon $5,100
WR
Tyreek Hill $7,000
JaMarr Chase $6,700
Tee Higgins $5,700
Byron Pringle $4,300
Tyler Boyd $4,200
Mecole Hardman $4,000
Demarcus Robinson $3,800
TE
Travis Kelce $6,500
CJ Uzomah $3,400
DEF
KC $3,000
CIN $2,600
SF 49ers @ LA Rams
Spread: LAR -3.5
Over/Under: 46
Team Totals: SF 21.25 LAR 24.75
Injuries to Monitor
Eli Mitchell missed practice this week due to his ongoing knee injury. He’s been playing through it and should be fine but worth monitoring.
Breakdown
Third times a charm? It’s always difficult to defeat a team three times in one season but the 49ers are 6-0 against the Rams over the last three seasons including two wins this year.
This will be the lower owned game of the two, likely by far. Except for Kupp. He’s gonna be owned. Stafford paired with Kupp will be most popular. As we discussed in the previous game, Stafford should be paired with multiple pass catchers. I will NOT have Higbee with Kupp in any lineups. People will most likely pair the two together with Stafford due to Kupp’s high salary and the savings Higbee provides. Kupp with Beckham and or Jefferson is probably the better route. Jefferson could be this week’s Gabe Davis. Maybe not to the same production but in the context of a lower salary high upside play.
Garoppolo will be the lowest owned on the slate and for good reason. I just don’t see the upside compared to the other QBs. That being said if you’re setting multiple lineups in large field tournaments you can maybe take a shot.
Deebo obviously offers the most upside. Kittle offers some upside as well and will likely be lower owned. Aiyuk should be the lowest owned of them all and did go for over 100 yds the last time these two met. I would play Kittle n Aiyuk together but not paired with Deebo.
Eli Mitchell and Cam Akers are good as bring backs but I wouldn’t have both in the same lineup. If you are going heavy on Bengals Chiefs you could pair Akers or Mitchell with their respective defenses in hopes that this is a lower scoring game.
My favorite stacks are
Stafford with Kupp and Beckham with Deebo, Mitchell or both as a bring back.
I will have a lot of Mitchell and 49ers Defense in my Bengals and Chiefs lineups.
QB
Matthew Stafford $6,300
Jimmy Garoppolo $5,400
RB
Eli Mitchell $5,900
Cam Akers $5,000
Sony Michel $4,600
WR
Cooper Kupp $8,800
Deebo Samuel $7,200
Odel Beckham $5,100
Brandon Aiyuk $5,000
Van Jefferson $3,900
TE
George Kittle $5,000
Tyler Higbee $3,700
DEF
LAR $3,200
SF $2,800
RANKINGS | DYNASTY |
Play DFS on Outlast now! Use promo code: YPF200 to receive a 100% deposit match up to $200!
